Modern Warfare’s campaign is no longer modern, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Once held up as a great example for post-WWII era shooters, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s campaign is now a time capsule for an era of Call of Duty that no longer exists. Today’s “modern” CoD is fast and vertical, focused on giving you more than just a gun and an objective — it’s set in the future, offering more firepower and more control than is possible with current military technology. Going back to the present day with Modern Warfare Remastered is a welcome return to combat that makes me feel simultaneously powerful and helpless and is literally and figuratively grounded. Though the sprawling level design and pacing are definitely dated, the core of Modern Warfare’s combat has aged remarkably well, and that foundation keeps its action movie-style campaign fun even nine years later.
My strongest memories of Modern Warfare’s campaign are of levels like All Ghillied Up and Mile High Club, but in Remastered the combat stands out most. Modern Warfare’s speed and range of movement is much more human, and the actions themselves haven’t changed in the remaster. That means things like mantling, reloading, and throwing grenades require the same (sometimes appropriately slow or clumsy) timing. It left me feeling relatively weighed down, encumbered, and more desperate in the fray.
It’s worth noting that while the animations and graphics are significantly better, they’re not as good as a new CoD. A checkpoint-triggered cloud of smoke near the end of the campaign was very rough around the edges, for instance, and there were times when I’d get momentarily stuck on the geometry of a door and unceremoniously shoved to the side by a scripted ally charging through. That’s the kind of clumsy that’s less endearing.
The still-strong combat fundamentals combine with levels that send swarms of enemies your way to make for white-knuckle warfare that still works. On higher difficulties, sacrificing mobility by throwing myself down to the ground to go prone or finding cover at the very last second made me feel powerless; even calling in airstrike or commandeering an enemy’s RPG put me right in the crossfire as opposed to helping me get out of it safely. It made me flex FPS muscles I haven’t used in a while.
Modern Warfare Remastered lacks a sense of progression in the campaign, though. The pacing isn’t bad, going from action-packed boots-on-the-ground fighting to the respite of on-rails vehicle sequences, but it’s broken up into very clear sections. In one level, the cool new thing is calling in airstrikes. In another, it’s sniping and stealth. All of that works in each level — All Ghillied Up is still a blast to play — but Modern Warfare never combines those isolated ideas to demand more complicated strategic thought from you. It’s a level structure left over from when frequent loading breaks were necessary, and it’s saved by the quality of the combat and lasting appeal of its individual ideas.
The level design itself has definitely aged less than gracefully, too. Like other timeworn aspects of Modern Warfare Remastered, its linear warzones with blown-out cars and buildings scattered haphazardly throughout still work in that they contribute to the stress of finding shoddy cover or a decent vantage point, but it relies far too heavily on NPCs to funnel you through an area. Characters like Captain Price and Gaz often take point when searching a building, for example, and there’s a stealthy section in a field that required no stealth on my part because my squad would move only when it was safe. The map design itself is about little more than places to duck behind, as opposed to a more modern map that makes good use of vertical space and providing versatility rather than linearity. It’s an approach to story missions that’s simply outdated and leaves little room for areas to speak for themselves.
The story Modern Warfare tells falls into a gray area — it’s the kind that has aged well because it captures the charm of the old way of doing things, but it also has its cheesy, “Remember when this was cool?” moments that made me cringe. Things like shouting “Oorah!” and “Stay frosty,” and the godawful rap during the credits sequence are completely at odds with the serious scenes that could have made a powerful statement about war but never quite get there. It’s very much like a typical action movie and no longer something that feels as groundbreaking as it once did, but despite that it’s still a really entertaining and impactful six or so hours.
There are moments that still truly stand out in Modern Warfare Remastered, brought into relief by much-improved graphics. A timed mission toward the beginning that sends you to save an ally before a nuke detonates was among the most somber for me; even if you rescue her in time, the nuke still goes off. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, and being a hero and fulfilling the objectives isn’t enough. That message is timeless. But, in Modern Warfare, it’s also fleeting.
Put simply, Modern Warfare’s campaign is no longer modern — though the combat and, in some ways, the action movie story at its foundation are timeless, its level design and lack of progression reveal its true age. But it’s not old, it’s classic. It might not have the same effect it did the first time around, but it works as both a great embodiment of what shooters used to be and one that still plays well.
Kallie Plagge is Promotions Editor at IGN and a host of IGN Anime Club. She’s also IGN’s resident Poké Kid. Follow her on Twitter @inkydojikko for cute things, FPS adventures, and more.
Source: IGN Video Games
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